Sometimes when interviewing designers for this column, we ask them to describe the most important personality traits needed to succeed in this industry. We never posed that question to this legendary New York designer and principal of Lightswitch during our talk with him, but if we had, we get the feeling that the word “collaboration” […]
Resourcefulness runs deep on the high arid plains of West Texas. One way this quality has manifested itself is in the impressive tributes to faraway famous structures that locals here have erected, from the “Globe of the Great Southwest” (modeled after Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre in London), to the popular “Stonehenge Replica” at Odessa’s state […]
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. For lighting designer Tim Farquhar, it’s value has proven to be far greater. Back in 2012, Farquhar saw the popular jam band Magic Beans performing at Eldora Mountain in Colorado. Overwhelmed by the band’ eclectic freewheeling performance he took photos of them and shared his work […]
There is a part of every play that audiences neither see nor hear, but feel. It is into this infinitesimal space that wafts between every word the writer pens, and separates every line each actor delivers, that Zach Blane’s lighting thrives. By filling this mysterious area, lighting can, he believes, unleash powerful and often subconscious […]
For this internationally renowned designer, the heart of concert lighting inevitably beats to the rhythm of contrasting forces. There is no brightness, says Whitehouse, without darkness. An intense laser or ballyhoo effect has no real impact by itself; it must be set against more mellow looks to move audiences. Virtually every facet of a design, […]
Thursday May 10 was just another day for millions in Manhattan, but for a select number of Charlie Puth fans attending his album release party at the iHeartRadio Theatre, it brought memories that will last a lifetime. Hours before the official release of Puth’s long-awaited sophomore LP “Voicemates,” these lucky few were treated to a […]
There is an inexorable narrative force that plows through metal music, just as aggressively as the most ferocious guitar riff and thunderous bass. At their best, metal songs aren’t merely performed, they’re acted out, unfolding step by step with the gripping power of a drama. Like any drama, each song reveals more about itself at […]
There’s more to the Brooklyn Bowl’s name than the casual observer might suspect. This hip music venue, which Rolling Stone named one of the Top 20 clubs in the US, also houses a 16-lane bowling alley within its spacious confines. House LD Victor Cornette doesn’t have to concern himself with pin spotting or retrieving erstwhile […]
“The road is life,” famed Beat author Jack Kerouac once wrote. Keith Hoagland would have no argument with that. Before starting a project, the Tennessee-based lighting designer and programmer is likely to hop on his Harley and take off on a remote winding Williamson County road with the music of his client playing on his […]
Having not yet reached her 35th birthday, Miranda Lambert wasn’t born nearly in time to experience the Summer of Love in 1968, but the multi-Grammy winning country superstar captures the heartfelt openness of those heady days in her aptly named Livin’ Like Hippies tour. Opening with a cover of the John Prine classic, “That’s The […]
To reflect its surroundings, an outdoor lighting design must first absorb them. This approach has characterized the work of Diana Kesselschmidt, who recently transformed Mid-Town Manhattan’s Winter Village at Bryant Park into a glittering gem set harmoniously against a backdrop of bustling city streets crowded with shoppers and towering skyscrapers. The moving power of this […]
Music and lighting, they go together like a hand and a glove. But which is the more important “hand,” and which is the supporting “glove.” Lighting designers and audio engineers may like to discuss (argue) about this issue, but one thing seems pretty indisputable: aside from working beautifully together on the concert stage, music and […]